When fall is in the air, so are pumpkins, costumes, and ghouls! What better way to enjoy each of these than while screaming on a roller coaster?! Come October, Elitch Gardens Fright Fest brings family friendly fall activities together with amusement park adventure while also giving anyone willing a good fright with haunted houses, lurking demons, and terrifying performances! Plus my readers get an exclusive coupon!

Fright By Night

My husband has been searching for the perfect Halloween-kick-starter event for years! He has finally found it with Elitch Gardens Fright Fest! We were so excited that our oldest children were finally at an age where we could scare the be-jesus out of them!

We were lucky enough to have the X-Scream Pass which gave us Rapid Ride access to rides as well as VIP access to each haunted house. This is totally worth it as there are long waits for these houses and who wants to wait in line for an hour?

Each haunted house has a different terrifying theme; a haunted hotel, a graveyard full of clowns, and a seance gone wrong. While my kids were terrified of the clowns (they may honestly never recover!) the seance was the most intense experience! Audience participation makes the fear truly come alive plus, the sophisticated holograms and special effects make you feel like you are truly surrounded by spirits.

My children were brave enough to volunteer and the horrified looks on their faces as the show really took off will forever be etched in my mind! Nothing is as exhilerating as a good old fashioned scare! I'm not sure my daughter will ever look at her dolls the same way...

Aside from the haunted houses, we found a lot of entertainment in the fiendish killers and demons roaming the park and scaring unwitting bystanders! We found particular enjoyment in watching different groups jump out of their skin when attacked by a chainsaw wielding murderer....until, of course, we let down our guard and became the next victims!

Family By Day

Our family often struggles with places that offer terrifying fare. With six kids, we have some that are old enough for a good scare, and some that aren't ready for anything more than pumpkins and costumes.

Elitch's does a fantastic job of making sure that no one in the family is left out! By day a host of kid friendly activities await kids of all ages. From trick or treating to a pumpkin patch and even costume contests, everyone will have a blast!

By night, younger children can still enjoy the rides and fun fare in the kiddie-land area while those with a hankering for a good scare can head over to the haunted houses.

Even those not quite ready for these, which are recommended for kids 12 and up, can catch a good scare from creeps and ghouls around the park, just waiting to catch you off guard! But don't worry, if you're worried about your littler ones getting scared by accident, you can pick up a special wrist band that will tell costumed staff to keep down the fear factor!

You can also bring the kids over to the "tea cups," turned fearful with fog, creepy lighting, and the possibility of things lurking in the shadows!

All in all our family had such a fantastic time at Fright Fest that I'm not sure Halloween will ever really be the same without it! We are definitely fans for life!

Our family will be taking advantage of a special offer going on right now where you can get season passes (which include the rest of this year and all of next year) for $59.99 when you buy 4 and $64.99 if you buy less. Each pass also includes 1 meal per day!